SLIS 5420 - Module 12 - Book Blog - I Am Scout

 

To Kill a Mockingbird is a great piece of literature and this biography of it's author dives into the background of the book. It gives an amazing amount of insight in the life of Harper Lee. She began writing at a very young age with her best friend, Truman Capote. The biography helps explain many things about the characters in Mockingbird and helps anyone who's read that book to have a better understanding of both the fictional characters and the real ones they are based on. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Mockingbird.

Library Uses

This book would be wonderful for author studies and to help students who are struggling to find something to write about. This is a great example of "writing what you know"

 

Reviews

Children's Literature

AGERANGE: Ages 12 to 16.
Adapted from his award-winning biography, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, this middle reader benefits from the extensive research previously undertaken by the author. Archival records, correspondence, newspaper articles, and interviews have all been mined to add personal color to this story of a very unorthodox young girl and woman. Nelle Harper Lee befriended Truman Capote at age seven; in fact the book opens with her defending Truman from bullies. Together they create a world filled with literature, immersing themselves in books, and after Lee's father gave them a typewriter jumping into writing as well. Truman's mother resurfaces a few years later and takes him to New York City, but they continue to see each other during the summers and then reconnect when she moves to the city as an adult. A thinly disguised Monroeville, the small Alabama town where she grew up and to which she returned in later life, served as the setting of her Pulitzer prize winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Her family relationships also shaped her work, and the main character is clearly modeled on her adored father. Probably less well known is the key role she played in Capote's own literary success, In Cold Blood. Mockingbird was the meteoric start and the culmination of Lee's literary career; the reader is led to believe that the success of her first book was so unexpected and so huge, that she lost the nerve to try writing anything else. Lee became an even more private person after her book was made into a movie, seldom granting interviews; yet this biography is rich in detail, supplemented with several black-and-white photos that helpthe reader know Lee better. This would certainly be an accessible model to use in a biography writing segment, and would be a wonderful supplement to reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Reviewer: Paula McMillen, Ph.D.

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up- This biography is a reworking of the best-selling Mockingbird (Holt, 2006), adapted for young adults. Shields spotlights Lee's lifelong friendship with Truman Capote and the creation of To Kill a Mockingbird , showing how the publication and success of that book affected the rest of her life. Shields uses previously conducted interviews with Lee and her family, friends, and neighbors. He pulls from books, magazine articles, newspapers, and radio and television interviews to piece together this life story of the notoriously press-shy Lee. The author's clear and appealing style is much the same as in Mockingbird and this adaptation appears to have been not so much edited as streamlined. Photos include Lee, her family, friends, and the famous Hollywood actors who made the film version of her book. I Am Scout moves along at a good pace, and Lee's quiet life makes for a surprisingly fascinating read. Perhaps because Shields is pulling from so many sources, the occasional turn of phrase comes across as oddly formal, but generally, this is an immensely readable, intriguing tale of a quiet, private author.-Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT